In a study published by the American Dietetic Association, parents are the biggest factor in what kids eat and in the food choices that they ultimately make. For young children, this doesn't come as a surprise because they have few opportunities to eat food not provided by their parents, but what makes the study noteworthy is that it applies to teens and concludes that having "healthy household eating rules" is the biggest factor in influencing a child's diet.
When parents emphasized getting a certain amount of fat (i.e. always served lean ground beef instead of regular) or made the number of servings of fruits and veggies important, the kids were more likely to make the same choices when eating without their parents.
What are good "healthy household eating rules" to have? The researchers who performed the study suggested having only healthy/healthier snacks at home, always having a vegetable with dinner and a fruit with breakfast, and setting limits on sweets and sodas. Kids might not strictly follow the "rules" when they're not at home, but their long-term choices will be shaped by them.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-14-2006 @ 4:59PM
Brandon said...
What fruits would you guys suggest to go along with breakfast?
I usually never have fruit for breakfast.
And which veggies would u recommend for dinner?
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7-14-2006 @ 5:13PM
dave said...
I don't have kids. That said, I have thought about this somewhat. I've seen on FoodNetwork Canada a couple of shows that are focused around "fixing dinner"-- making dinner more time and cost effective, et cetera. One problem that comes up consistently is the food preparer makes multiple meals to accommodate picky eaters, usually children, but often older people, too. The kids end up with processed chicken fingers and fries, and the adults have "real" food.
I gotta say, my parents would have never tolerated this, and I won't either. There's one meal made for dinner. That's what we're having. Allergies are one thing, but usually it was that the kid didn't like the food (or claimed not to like the food).
Aside from that, I'd just lead by example. Try a bit of everything. Make each meal consist of a serving of some protein, a serving of some fruit or vegetable, and a serving of some sort of complex carb. Try to minimize intake of processed food.
I've noticed that kids who are willing to eat anything usually have parents who are willing to eat anything. The parents who are picky usually have kids who are picky. And, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard a parent say "No, you won't like that" when a kid wants something "exotic" I'd use it to fund a program to make parents stop doing that. Let the kid try it! They might like it! It might be good for them!
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7-16-2006 @ 1:19AM
Robert said...
I see the idea as true, but there're many exceptions. The biggest problem pertaining to this is the high exposure to meal halls. Production line food is often lacking in taste and is a lower quality than a home cooked meal. I'm in college right now and can well attest to this. When I first came to school, I did the opposite of most freshmen: I lost 15lbs. Part of it was I lost the facilities to munch (a store was a two-mile roundtrip and I didn't care enough) and part of it was the terrible dining hall food. Unfortunately, most college students are put through this rather than educated on how to cook themself a meal. I've heard from students at schools with the highest ranking dining halls that even their food is short of homecooked simplicities. By the time most of these students will leave college, fruit and vegetables will be forgotten (the dining hall providing only minimal and poor quality examples), basic knowledge of how to cook a pot of rice or a piece of chicken is rare (honestly, people) and the munching habit is developed fully (maybe this is a sign of too much pot, but I digress). Throw in a more-than-healthy amount of beer for many of these students and you have a grand recipe for the next generation of apathetic, poor-diet adults.
As for myself, I'm still trying to break free of that paradigm. I find myself slipping all the time, unfortunately. But the meals I truely enjoy are the ones that are different than what I have been eating for 20 years, so I think it is getting somewhere. It's a long, hard road leading to the highway of healthy eating, but it's totally worth it.
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7-30-2006 @ 11:53PM
courtney said...
Can you make me a Diet meal plan ?
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